WASHINGTON — The State Department says it is tracking roughly 1,000 American citizens who it believes may still be in Afghanistan, as evacuation efforts proceed despite deadly suicide attacks outside the Kabul airport.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said Wednesday that some 1,500 U.S. citizens were still thought to be in the country but the department said Thursday that it confirmed about 500 of them had been evacuated.
In the meantime, it said another 500 people claiming to be Americans wanting to leave had gotten in touch with the U.S. Embassy but that it expected the majority of them would turn out not to be U.S. citizens. Of the 1,000 Americans the department believes to be in Afghanistan, it said about 75 percent were making preparations to leave.